


A Not So Horrible Day

by MryddinWilt



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A cheer up fic, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 13:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7619188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MryddinWilt/pseuds/MryddinWilt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Pan's curse never happened and Emma is having a bad day. Written to cheer someone up. with the prompt<br/>"The only thing that can make this crappy day any better is if a gorgeous man suddenly dropped into my lap."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Not So Horrible Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Seethelovelyintheworld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seethelovelyintheworld/gifts).



When Emma was a kid living in her fourth (or was it fifth?) foster home she came across a copy of “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” given that her life seemed exclusively comprised of horrible and very bad days she had been ready to sympathize with Alexander. Instead she found herself angry, really angry. The kid was complaining about the stupidest things. He was like all the kids at her school who didn’t know how good they had it with their mothers and fathers and new sneakers and home-cooked dinners. She ended up ripping the book to shreds and trying to flush it down the toilet.

It was only much later in life that she finally came to identify with Alexander. About how waking up with one mild annoyance could amplify the others, make them seem worse and as one thing built upon the other they created a day that could only be described as terrible and horrible. Today was one of those days.

The night before Emma forgot to set the coffee maker so when she woke up late there was no coffee ready. When she went to pull her hair back her hair tie broke and there wasn’t another one in the entire loft. She threw a beanie on her hair instead, but not her favorite one because it was nowhere to be found. Still struggling to wake up she had stubbed her toe on the bug and then dropped her keys in a puddle. On and on it went. Her Dad’s patrol car wouldn’t start, Henry needed her to grab a forgotten school project, Neal had wanted to “talk about us” (again), a lost boy vandalized the Game of Thorns, and Regina took issue with Emma’s paper filing abilities.

By the time she left the station and was headed to meet Neal at Granny’s she knew she would need to blow off some steam if they were going to be able to have a semblance of an adult conversation. So she took a detour to the Rabbit Hole.

It was still early and only a few regulars were hanging about. Emma nodded at Leroy on the other end of the bar. He raised a glass with an almost sneer and Emma felt comforted. She wasn’t the only one having a shitty day. It was nice to know she wasn’t alone in the world.

The bartender, she thought he used to be a blacksmith or something, was nowhere to be found so Emma rapped on the bar as she slid onto a stool

A blonde head popped up from behind the bar with the speed of a whack-a-mole.

“Emma!” Tinkerbell said with a grin that was too damn chipper.

“Uh–Tinkerbell!” Emma stumbled over the fairies name (yep still weird). “I didn’t know you worked here.”

“Yes. Well. I had to do something. Too cold to live in a treehouse around here.”

Emma nodded slowly not sure if she should express sympathy or excitement.

“What can I get you? I just learned how to mix a daiquiri or maybe you would like a mojito?”

“No thanks. I’ll just take a scotch.”

Tinkerbell looked a little disappointed as she moved to the fill the plain order.

Since coming back from Neverland Emma hadn’t given much thought to Tinkerbell. She had been too consumed with finding homes for the Lost Boys, trying to figure out how to fit Neal into her already crazy family, and (if she was being honest) wondering why the hell Hook was avoiding her. But as she watched the fairy carefully pour out the whiskey she realized that Mother Superior must not have taken her back into the fold (flock?) and that she had needed a job because she desperately needed money. Emma knew what that was like.

Tinkerbell placed the glass in front of her and Emma thanked her but instead of walking away she stood there watching her. Self-conscious Emma took a sip and said it was good but that only made the fairy lean forward on the bar.

“So what’s wrong? Bad day?”

“Uh-Yeah. You could say that.”

“What happened?”

Seeing that Tinkerbell took her bartender sounding board duties seriously, Emma took a slow sip and tried to seize on something that didn’t make her sound as childish and ungrateful as Alexander. “Nothing specific. Just a lot of little things.”

Tinkerbell nodded as if that made perfect sense. “Relationship trouble?”

Emma almost choked. “What? No? Why would you?” She shook her head. “It’s not relationship trouble. I am not in a relationship.”

“Oh.” The fairy tipped her head as if contemplating this new bit of information. “Is that the problem then? You want to be in a relationship and–“

“No!” Emma cut her off. “I just had a crappy day. And I know you fairytale types think that love and romance are the answer to everything” Tinkerbell looked shocked but now that she had started Emma couldn’t stop herself.  “And you probably think that the only thing that can make this crappy day any better is if a gorgeous man suddenly dropped into my lap but I am telling you that wouldn’t help.”

“That’s a pity, Swan, because I would be more than willing to volunteer to drop into your lap.”

Emma froze at the deep timbre of Hook’s voice. It both soothed and angered her. It had been weeks since she had even seen him and he chose now to talk to her?

She turned on him with a scowl and was satisfied to see his usual smirk drop. But her satisfaction vanished when his eyes became soft and he quirked a questioning brow. Damn him for genuinely caring.

“Swan, may we talk?”

Her first instinct was to say no, pay for her drink, and leave but Tinkerbell had suddenly disappeared and she didn’t have cash. She spun on her stool to face the pirate that had barely spoken to her since they returned from Neverland and crossed her arms.

“So talk.”

“Ah.” He looked around as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to have the talk right now or right here. Emma just waited, unwilling to make this–whatever it was–easy on him. He looked down as if he was gathering his thoughts (or his courage) and then looked up.

His eyes pierced her and despite herself Emma’s stomach flipped. She had almost forgotten what it was like to experience his intense gaze and the way it made her warm all over.

“Emma Swan, would you accompany me to dinner?”

She gave a tiny shake of her head, her eyes blinking rapidly (definitely not fluttering). “Wait, what?”

“I–ah–I believe in this realm you would call it a date.” He tried for a winning smile but it looked a little forced. Maybe if Emma’s day had been less horrible, terrible, no good, and very bad she would have been kinder, less harsh. Maybe she would have let him down easy or cracked a joke.

“I know what a date is, Hook. I just don’t understand why, after almost a month of radio silence, you are asking me out.”

He cleared his throat, looked away, and scratched behind his ear. Then he tried the smile again but it looked more like a grimace. “I take it that is a no then.”

Emma opened her mouth but she couldn’t find the words to actually tell him no. She closed her mouth.

“He was waiting for you to figure things out with Bae.” Tinkerbell appeared magically at the bar.

“What?”

“Tinkerbell”

Tinkerbell ignored Hook’s warning voice and answered Emma’s question. “He told Bae, Neal that is, that he would step away and let you two be together, be a family. Because he wanted you all to be happy.”

“Seriously?” Emma looked between Hook and Tinkerbell. He looked like he was contemplating murder but she was smiling with a slightly dreamy look in her eye.

Suddenly the last couple weeks made sense. The way Hook had disappeared from her life but not left Storybrooke. The way Neal had been so pushy about them getting back together. Emma thought of the time she had wasted wondering when Hook would deliver on his promised fun and then feeling rejected when he never did. She wanted to be mad but she was more relieved to finally understand what was going on.

“My apologies, Swan. I should have told yo–“

“Yeah you should have. I am a big girl and I can make my own decisions about who I want to be with.”

He nodded his face grim as if he was waiting for the killing blow.

“So why did you ask me out now?”

His eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“If you told Neal you would stay clear then why now? Why tonight at the end of this horrible day did you decide to ask me out?”  

He smiled at that, a genuine little smile, and she could practically see the hope being rekindled in his eyes. “I was tired of waiting and you were rather adamant about not being in a relationship.” His smile turned playful. “And I thought it was time I attempt to rectify that situation.”

Emma felt her head spin a little. Did Captain Hook just say he wanted to be her boyfriend? Did they even call it that in the fairytale land? She wanted to ask him to clarify but she also knew she wasn’t ready to hear his answer. She bit her lip and met his gaze. They were practically twinkling under his quirked eyebrow. Somehow that bastard knew that she wasn’t upset with him. She rolled her eyes.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

Emma took a deep breath. This would change everything and she knew that with Hook there was no turning back. He didn’t do anything by half-measures.

“Okay. You can take me out to dinner.”

Killian broke into a blinding grin. Tinkerbell gave a little squeal. Emma decided that maybe it hadn’t been such a terrible, horrible, no good day after all.


End file.
